Watching a bit of Sesame Street this morning with Matthew.
Who did they cast as Snow White?

Amy Sedaris.

A woman best known for playing Jerri Blank on Strangers With Candy.

I knew there was a reason I loved Sesame Street.

Just a reminder for all you commuters out there. If you're not subscribed to the This American Life podcast, you're missing great radio. www.thisamericanlife.org

Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall 1971

If you're like me and you adore "After the Goldrush" & "Harvest", you're going to love the immaculately recorded "Live at Massey Hall 1971". It's just Neil, a guitar, a piano, and some of his best songs: Helpless, Old Man, Tell Me Why, Cowgirl, Needle, and much more.

For my money, the most notable track is #7, a "suite" that includes A Man Needs a Maid and Heart of Gold. The relationship between the two songs was never clear in my mind, but I'm now convinced their proximity on "Harvest" is not coincidental. Keep in mind, this performance is before the release of "Harvest", so these songs change a bit by the time they hit vinyl for the first time and Neil makes a point at the beginning of saying he's got a few new songs for the crowd. Little did they know they would be hearing classics for the first time, revisited over thirty five years later on this incredible recording.

Some Thoughts on Downloading Movies

Anyone who knows me knows I love TiVo. It's changed the way I watch television 100%.
It may be changing the way I rent & buy movies as well. TiVo has teamed up with Amazon.com to provide a way for movies to be rented or purchased online and watched on the TV in your living room.

Movies are bought online at Amazon.com and then sent to your TiVo where the film appears in your "now playing" lineup just like the shows you tape. It takes a while to download to the TiVo, but I'd say about as long as it takes for me to go the video store, so what's the difference, right?

Video quality isn't quite as good as a DVD and there are no extra features. My copy of Talladega Nights cost $14.99 but as part of a promotion for the service, I actually paid nothing for it. Mickey got his DVD copy of Talladega Nights for a couple bucks cheaper so the prices obviously have to come down a bit for the service to really catch on. The selection isn't great at this point either, but I expect it will improve rapidly. It's amazing how quickly the film download market has filled out.

I was also pretty satisfied with downloading movies from iTunes (two actually, Rattle & Hum & Errol Morris's amazing documentary, The Thin Blue Line) and from xbox360's online marketplace (Nacho Libre...I think I fell asleep?). All three of these services have pluses and minuses, but I fear Apple's attempt to link the Mac and the TV will fall flat for those of us who already have two TV bridges (TiVo & xbox).

To sum up...the services are pretty good but it comes down to three things:
1) Ease of use
2) Quality of Content
3) Cost

Snowshoeing

I grew up in Georgia so I've never had any need for snowshoes. Until this weekend I had a vague notion that they only really existed in black and white photographs and that they were worn by men with huge mustaches. We hiked near lake Mohonk in New York and it was quite beautiful. This photo is from the top.

Crazy Idea? Apparently not.

Years ago I had an idea that must have sounded crazy at the time. If we're looking for renewable energy, why don't we harness the energy we exert every day just by walking down the street? I figured some genius out there could design a system beneath the world's sidewalks that could channel the energy exerted from foot traffic to power grids all over the world.

Well, I don't know how I missed this, but apparently there are folks working on a very similar project right now. It's called the Pacesetter's Project and it's happening in the UK. You can read more about it here and here.

Super Freak

All you folks out there with CMT are really lucky. You'll get a chance to see the entire episode of Crossroads featuring Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs on Saturday night at 9pm.

Because I live in New Jersey and have a subscription to a cable system that doesn't believe that anyone in New Jersey would be caught dead watching country music on television, I've got to settle for this AWESOME video of the duo performing Super Freak. Yes. The Rick James song. Don't miss it.

Pan's Labyrinth

We saw Pan's Labyrinth this weekend. It was fantastic.

Further evidence that I know absolutely nothing...

Ghost Rider made over 44 million this weekend.

Free Music

I was telling someone the other day about free content to fill up their iPod.
There's plenty of it out there if you know where to look. Here's a few places to try:

1) iTunes always has free tracks. They change them periodically. Some are good. Some are not. But hey, they're free. And it's not just music. There's often free television shows and short films as well. Just poke around. What do you have to lose?

2) archive.org
The live music archive has some great artists, both widely and slightly known
including Jack Johnson, Los Lonely Boys, & Infradig. These are bands that are known as "tape friendly". They don't tend to get upset (or litigious) if you record live shows and pass 'em around. Just beware the sound quality varies GREATLY from recording to recording.

3) Subpop Records is doing something pretty amazing. They're giving away a few unrestricted MP3 files for most of their artists. And these aren't the filler you'd expect. They're the choice tracks from some of their most well-known artists like The Shins. You like their new single, Phantom Limb? Don't buy it on iTunes. Download it for free. Other artists include Sleater-Kinney, The Postal Service, Wolf Parade, & Iron and Wine. I recommend The Great Salt Lake by Band of Horses.

4) KEXP Song of the Day podcast gives you a new song each day from some artists you'll know: Death Cab for Cutie, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and some you've never heard of. Who knows....maybe you'll find your new favorite band.

5) Even better, in my opinion, is the KEXP Live performances podcast. You get up to 40 minutes of live music from acts like Beirut, M. Ward, Jose Gonzalez, Billy Bragg, and one of my favorites, Drive-By Truckers.

6) Myspace is another place to go. Some artists, like Jason Harrod, offer free downloads of a few of their songs.

7) Finally, go to the pages of the artists themselves or their labels. Great bands like R.E.M. and Sigur Ros make free MP3s available on their sites. If you go to Anti, you can download SEVEN Tom Waits MP3s absolutely free, including three great tracks from his latest, the amazing three-disc set, Orphans.

Musical Boy

Love this video of Matthew. He's watching tv and wants to play along with the music so he picks up the ukelele and gives it a try.

Steve Jobs on selling music online

Remember about a week ago when I posted about how the record companies build restrictions into the music files they sell online, yet their biggest money-maker in history, the CD, was an unrestricted digital format?

Well, Steve Jobs (Apple's CEO) released a very interesting letter today along those lines. Here it is.

Frisky Dingo

I mentioned the adult swim show Frisky Dingo back in November after I saw two episodes and noted how funny it was. Well, the season's ended (13 episodes) and althought it's certainly not for everyone, I have to recommend it.
Watch a few interview snippets with the main character, Killface, for an idea of what this show is like.
Episodes are on iTunes, xbox live marketplace, and youtube for all you webbed kids out there. Enjoy.

Unrestricted Digital Music Sales = $

I read a story in the New York Times a couple of days ago that said some of the major labels are considering selling unrestricted MP3s online.

Seems to me it's a no-brainer. The major labels had unbelievable success the last time they decided to sell digital music without a padlock. They're called CDs.

You never know who you'll meet on the subway

If you keep your eyes peeled in New York, you're sure to meet some really interesting people. I was half-way to the office Tuesday morning and noticed Jack McBrayer sitting across the way. He plays Kenneth the page on 30 Rock. He's an actor that a few of us have really been enjoying in recent years. He was also in Talladega Nights.

I introduced myself and told him how much I enjoy the program and that judging from IMDB we were both born in Macon, Georgia. We had a quick chat before my stop came. He was very nice and patient with me. Turns out he's got family near mine in Georgia. Such a small world.

Castle In The Clouds

The long-awaited Ash Valley record is now available!

I'd heard bits and pieces before now but listening front to back is the way to experience the album. It's a thematically articulate, sonically complex record. Mortality, family, passion, regret, faith, sin & redemption.
This ain't Fergalicious, folks.


You can order it online at www.myspace.com/ashvalley. Just scroll down a bit 'til you see the album cover. The great thing is you're given two options to purchase. Order a physical CD using PayPal (it's easy), or download your tracks at Digstation if you just can't wait to hear it.

Runnin'

Every once in a while I get the urge to do something about my weight. I've tried excercising, eating sensibly, all the things people do, but nothing extreme. Each time, I trail off. Once I got injured and couldn't run for a while and once I healed I didn't start up again. Little things can really get a person off-track.

So, here I am, turning 30 in June, and I'd really like to get healthy. So, I've started eating better and I'm running in the mornings. I really enjoy running. I used to run every morning before high school, I think my sophomore year. It's great. I just got the nike+ system and I'm excited to use that to keep track of my running.

I've also found a couple of free websites that folks might find helpful. I know people have made resolutions and sometimes the smallest things can really help.

The first is fitday.com. You can track your activity and diet online there for free. It'll let you know how many calories you've consumed and how many you've burned in a day. You can also work toward a goal weight over a period of time and it'll track that too.

The second is mapmyrun.com. You enter a starting point on a google map and then mark the points in your run and it calculates the distance for you down to a tenth of a mile. I ran today and came back and mapped it and found out it was 1.8 miles. I had no idea I'd gone that far! I'll use the nike plus in the next couple days and probably post a brief review of that technology.

Walkin' on Christmas

Well, it wasn't a Christmas miracle, but it certainly felt like one. After a few weeks of starts & stops, wobbles, falls, & half-steps, our boy finally walked! And on Christmas day to boot. Born on Valentine's, walked on Christmas. This kid just likes to make it easy for Dad to remember important dates.

Merry Christmas to All!

We're really excited about our first Christmas with Matthew. I was at the mall with him today getting some last-minute shopping done. We're planning on making some cookies for Santa tomorrow after church. I bet he eats them all!

Free Christmas Tunes From Jason Harrod

I wanted to make sure to tell you about a couple of great Christmas songs Jason Harrod recorded and is making available for free at his site. If you're not familiar with his music, be sure to poke around on his site. You'll find samples of the music there and if he's playing in your neighborhood, be sure to go. You'll thank me.

You can download O Come, O Come, Emanuel here and
God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen here.